Salvador Dalí

Dalí was born in 1904 in Figueres, a small town in Spain. But before him, there was another Salvador Dalí. His older brother, who bore the same name, had died just months before Dalí was born. From a very young age, his parents told him that he was the reincarnation of this lost child. This idea would leave a lasting mark on him. To grow up believing that one is not entirely oneself, but a continuation of someone else, creates a strange tension between identity and absence. Dalí later claimed that he always felt like a copy, a repetition—someone who had to construct his own identity from within that shadow. This may explain why, throughout his life, he did not simply become an artist, but actively invented himself.